George Oles Mitchell

George Mitchell, like all lawyers, wanted to have the last word, as well as save his wife and children from having to reconstruct his life in a time of grief, so he chose to draft his own obituary.

George Oles Mitchell was born March 9, 1939, in Youngstown, Ohio, to Georgia Oles and James Edward Mitchell. Both parents came from prominent local families. His mother's father, George Oles, was a successful grocer and past Mayor of Youngstown. His father's father, Osborne Mitchell, was a prominent local lawyer and past Mayor of Poland, Ohio. In 1946, following a divorce, George and his mother moved from Youngstown to Miami Beach, Florida. The move was against the grandparents' wishes.

On arriving in Miami Beach, Georgia Oles Mitchell and her son rented an efficiency located behind the registration desk of the Tatum Hotel on Collins Avenue. George's mother, who had never worked, took her Vassar diploma and Phi Beta Kappa Key job hunting, getting a position with D.R. Mead and Company, an insurance/mortgage banking firm located on Lincoln Road. Decades later she would marry Dick Mead's cousin, Walter Mead, whose family owned and operated Consolidated Paper Company which made all the coated paper for Time and Life Magazines.

George attended St. Patrick's School and later, in 1954 was sent to Christ School for Boys, an Episcopal self-help boarding school in Arden, North Carolina. In 1957, he graduated from Christ School with Honors and was admitted to Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1961. While at Harvard, he went to work for a metal hose manufacturing company in Boston, working his way up from an apprentice machinist to assistant to the president. At his graduation from college, George was earning ten thousand dollars a year with a promise of a job at this company. George's father, a lawyer, intervened, offering to send his son to law school "because manufacturing companies are often bought and moved". As a lawyer, his father said, “you can always earn a living, even if it isn't a very good one.”

George graduated from the University of Miami Law School in 1964; was admitted to the Florida Bar; and married Monika Eichholz, which marriage ultimately ended in divorce but produced two fine sons, Jamie and George, both of which are now fourth generation lawyers.

In 1997, after almost ten years of bachelorhood, George married the beautiful Lisa Cole, to whom he remained married until the time of this death.

For more than sixty years, George was a civil trial lawyer, trying everything from personal injury cases to anti-trust cases. However, his first love was Admiralty Law, in which he was Board Certified. Over the years, his clients included major yacht and boat manufacturers, shipyards, cruise lines, cruise line caters, and many other marine entities. His marine law practice gave rise to some very close friendships with individuals in the marine industry, some of the more notable persons being Dick Bertram and Jim Wynn. George was the managing partner in the several law firms which he founded over the years.

He was an avid free diver and spear fisherman. For more than thirty years, he and his good friend, Roger Yost, spent a significant part of each summer roaming the waters of Bimini and all the other Bahamian Islands, often on his boat the “Court Jester.” Their adventures were many. On one occasion, they located an Aero Commander twin engine aircraft which had crashed in the waters behind Bimini, salvaging the engines and propeller assemblies so that the machinery could be tested by aircraft investigators back in Miami. On another occasion, in hurricane-force winds, they left Bimini in a Bertram 31 to rescue a family of four stranded on a sailboat which was breaking up on Piquet Rocks.

During a forced respite recovering from a spinal fusion, George took up the piano. The piano proved to be a very personal cathartic experience which afforded him a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction during his retirement.

In later years, however, his chief pleasure came from spending time with his wife, Lisa, their dogs, and watching his two sons, both married, mature into fine men and able lawyers. George was a guiding influence and mentor for Jamie and George in the practice of law, which included assisting them in every case they tried in their careers.

George is survived by his wife Lisa, his two sons, and their wives (Jamie/ Amanda) and (George/Ely) and granddaughters, Elia and Charlotte. A memorial service will be held in the Chapel located at the rear of the Caballero Rivero Woodlawn Park North Cemetery and Mausoleum on Tuesday, May 13th, 2025, promptly at 12:30PM, located at 3260 SW 8th St., Miami, FL 33135, following which an internment will take place.